Milwaukee County

South Shore officials criticize Hoan Bridge report

Some say they didn't know analysis was being conducted

Elected officials from the South Shore neighborhoods and cities were in a mood Friday to don T-shirts emblazoned with "SOB," indicating their anger and their cause: Save Our Bridge.

Gathering over coffee at a restaurant at the south end of the Hoan Bridge, the group derided a planning firm's analysis that touted the development potential of the land under the 2½-mile span. The report from HNTB recommended the bridge be torn down and replaced with a four-lane boulevard, opening 500 acres of property for other uses.

State Sen. Jeff Plale (D-South Milwaukee), state Rep. Christine Sinicki (D-Milwaukee) and the mayors of Cudahy, St. Francis and South Milwaukee criticized both the recommendation to tear down their easy route to downtown Milwaukee and the manner in which the state Department of Transportation shared the analysis.

"I'm thoroughly disgusted with the way this all developed," said Tom Zepecki, the mayor of South Milwaukee.

The officials said no one from the DOT shared with them the results of the report, which was prepared by HNTB for $175,000, or even indicated such a report was being requested.

"Everything I've heard about this is secondhand," said Plale, who serves as chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee.

Chris Klein, the top aide to DOT Secretary Frank Busalacchi, said the department asked for the assessment after receiving estimates that replacing the aging deck on the Hoan Bridge would top $200 million. That work will be needed in 2010 to 2013.

In addition, Klein said that Plale had been briefed on the recommendations weeks before they became public.

The Hoan Bridge & Harbor Redevelopment report developed by HNTB estimates that more than 500 acres under and around the current bridge could be opened for construction of condos, commercial buildings, parks and a marina, totaling more than $5.7 billion in value. A less-ambitious development scenario, which includes more public amenities, would generate 5,000 residential units and a total value of roughly $2.2 billion.

Area business owners who joined their representatives scoffed at the "pie in the sky" projections.

"Who in the world would want to live there, next to that perfume factory?" said Branko Radicevic, referring to the sewage treatment plant that sends a foul scent over the current bridge.

Radicevic and his family have operated Three Brothers Restaurant just south of the Hoan for 54 years. He also criticized the HNTB report for failing to account for any of the environmental contamination likely on land that has been used for industry throughout the last century.

Klein said in earlier comments that the HNTB report provided a "talking point" and did not represent a plan to tear down the Hoan Bridge, which opened in 1977.

Given the massive cost of replacing the bridge deck and maintaining the Hoan in the coming decades, looking at alternatives is well-warranted, he said.

"The time to look at other alternatives is now," Klein said. "We haven't even said it's a good idea; we're just looking at other options."